It’s time to stop waving the Open Skies banner

by Grant Martin on

Listen up bloggers and analysts: it’s time to stop chanting the “Open Skies” mantra and telling Americans that they’re going to find a ton of budget fares to Europe. It’s not going to happen immediately and there will not be a huge stampede to buy bargain basement fares this month.

I keep reading and hearing journalist’s shallow reports about how increased demand with the Open Skies Agreement means fares are going to be super cheap this summer. Yes, the new pact means that more routes will be available between the US and EU. Yes, more supply usually means lower prices. But have you guys really looked at the data? Have you compared this year’s load and pricing data against the last few years?

I’ve been keeping track of transatlantic ticket prices for a while now and can tell you that the current market prices are not much different from last year. There may be small deviations above or below, but I’m sure those fit into the noise of a ten year average and are largely not a function of Open Skies.

The fact of the matter is, routes didn’t come pouring into the market like a tidal wave once March 31 passed. Airlines are carefully integrating their routes and planning accordingly with seasonal and passenger loads and aren’t going to be getting into a fare ware during peak season. Even if they do decide to bicker over a few routes, the 20% savings off a 1500$ ticket is still going to be significantly more than the 400$ that you’re going to pay in February.

Open Skies comes at a time when tourist season is kicking into gear and jet fuel is at an all time high. These two factors alone should be able to single handedly negate any increase in supply. To that end, once demand goes back down this fall and more routes come into effect, we may see a decrease in fares to a reasonable rate. But my prediction is it will be only then, well after this year’s season has ended.

As travel writers and analysts, we need to be cautious not to jump on the Open Skies bandwagon because our Econ 101 teachers told us that prices could go down or because we have an interview on local news. This is a multi faceted market where route volumes do not solely dictate the market price. Keep an eye on the numbers and jump up and down when the prices drop; until then, Open Skies is just a few extra planes flying over the Atlantic and hopes for a cheaper ticket some day.

On sale now: “Sex and the City” tour for $24,000

by Iva Skoch on

Sex in the City might have ended a while ago, but its shoe-loving spirit is clearly still well and alive. Even more so with the upcoming movie.

Those wishing to become Carrie Bradshaw for a day (4 days actually) are in luck. For just $24,000 a New York travel company is offering “Sex and the City” fans the chance to live the life of characters in the television series, splurging on luxury shoes and handbags, being pampered at luxury spas and sipping cocktails at nightspots featured in the show, Reuters reports.

Guests can expect to be chauffeured to upscale department store Saks Inc and Barneys New York and boutique clothes stores including the New York store of Patricia Field, the designer and stylist whose clothes feature on the TV series. They will dine at famed restaurants including Balthazar and Pastis are also on the agenda, as is clubbing at Bungalow 8 and other exclusive nightclubs. Guests will also be able to choose their Saturday afternoon based on their favorite character.

The first client to book the tour was a woman from Singapore, where the show is banned. Great marketing.

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Read the latest Sex & the City Movie news from Cinematical:

75 years after Dachau opened

by Jamie Rhein on

One of the most somber places I’ve been in my travels is Dachau. The first time I visited this place of atrocities against humanity was in the middle of winter. Although the day was sunny, the temperature was bitter cold. While reading Jaunted, I found out that March 22 marked the 75th anniversary of when Dachau opened.

This concentration camp was the first in Germany and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews and others during the Holocaust. It doesn’t look like it did back in 1938. The barracks are gone, although, there are cement slabs to show where they were. Many other buildings are intact, including the gas chambers and crematorium.

I went back a few summers later when I was traveling with another friend of mine who wanted to go there. I don’t think I sat through the movie a second time. Like the first time, the day was sunny. Even though the temperature was several degrees higher, I remember the cold of the first time, and how strange it was to go looking for a place to eat in Munich after wards.

ATA files for bankruptcy, ceases all operations

by Grant Martin on

Passengers flying on ATA Airlines today are in for a surprise when they get to the airport. This morning, with practically no advance notice, the Indianapolis-based airline announced that they had declared bankruptcy, canceled all flights and ceased operations.

The cause of their collapse, in addition to the obvious stratospheric jet fuel prices, was in the loss of a key military contract that they had been relying on to maintain operations. Between those and and an extremely competitive market, the airline could no longer operate in the black.

Passengers in ATA’s hub cities, Chicago, San Francisco (Oakland), and Honolulu will be the most affected by the cancellations. If any of you have reservations and booked with a credit card, ATA suggests that you contact your credit card company for a refund. But if you paid by other means, you may have to jump through a few extra hoops before you get your money back; as our friends at Elliott.org write this morning, you’re going to have to file a claim in ATA’s Chapter 11 proceedings if you ever want to see part of that money again.

And so comes to close another small American budget airline, pushed out of business by high oil prices, competition and operating costs in a market that was just too tight to sustain it. With the collapse of the airline goes 2,200 employees, 29 aircraft and 35 years of hard work.

Farewell.

Bizarre, monstrous sea creatures found in Antarctic waters

by Abha Malpani on

Giant star fish, hydroids (see photo: urrr…mop-like sea animals?), sea-squirts (that really just look like a squirt of gelatin), sea-spiders, daggertooths and sea-pigs, are just a few of the 30,000 rare sea creatures found by a team of researchers on a large-scale survey of Antarctica.

Over 35 days they traveled about 2000-miles collecting specimens on the surface and from the sea-bed as part of the International Polar Year and Census of Antarctic Marine Life programs, which study the diversity of Antarctic marine life. Using advanced video imagine, the researchers also managed to photograph the seafloor to a depth of 2.1 miles.

Published recently in National Geographic, you can see an incredible, jaw-scrunching photo slide-show that gives a taste of these marine species, on their website here.